thank you thank you very we can
eliminate hate hunger and poverty with
one fundamental Act laughter you might
think to yourselves wait a minute
that’s a pretty bold statement to
eliminate hate hunger and poverty with
with something as simple as laughter
could this possibly be true well I
assure you that it is true you see when
we laugh we reposition about a dozen
muscles in our faces we change the blood
laughter is a physiological chemical
reaction that is impossible to duplicate
without humor children laugh on average
about 300 times per day adults laugh
just 20 times per day why is it that we
stop laughing at a time when we need
laughter the most laughter knows no
boundaries
it knows no skin color no politics no
economics it knows no boundaries here’s
what I mean
in 2013 I had the opportunity to visit a
small village in an isolated part of the
mountains of Guatemala when I arrived in
the village I saw there were about 8
young boys and they were playing marbles
in the reddish dirt I walked over those
boys didn’t say a word
picked up one of their marbles and with
sleight of hand made it disappear they
laughed I was in
they included me in their game for the
next several hours I noticed that these
boys as well as the other children in
the village were very thin and very
small for their age as I looked around
the village I saw an entire community
built on nothing more than discarded
trash their homes were made of cardboard
plastic and old tires when it came time
to leave one of the little boys came
over to me had his hand stretched out
with a marble in it and he said
something to me in Spanish because he
didn’t have the you know common decency
and he held that marble in his hand and
the translator told me what he was
saying he said he wanted to he wanted me
to have this marble
I thought these kids only have like five
marbles between the eight of them I
can’t take 20% of their toys but he
spoke again in his his speech was
different this time it was he was
adamant he said something in Spanish
and the translator turned to me with
tears in her eyes and she said he said
he wants to give this to you as a gift
he said people come from all over the
world as missionaries to visit his
village and they do things like build
schools and dig wells and they bring
food but I came and sat in the dirt and
played with him and his friends and he
wanted me to take this marble back to
the United States and play with my own
children and tell them about him and his
friends I had to fight the lump in my
in 2015 I was invited to be part of a
group of volunteers with an organization
called hope for Africa we were to visit
the Western African nation of Burkina
Faso when we when we arrived in one tiny
village there was a group of 40 or 50
women that had met us at the gates of
their community and they were they were
playing centuries-old drums and they
were dancing a ceremonial dance to
welcome us as outsiders to their village
it was very moving after an hour you
after an hour and a half I decided that
we needed a little more laughter so I
stood up and I jumped into this drum
circle and began dancing with the women
trying to mimic the dance I had seen
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
after a few minutes I feigned an injury
to my rear end look at them they
screamed with laughter this was loud
uproarious gleeful laughter when I
returned to the van where my driver had
been waiting I showed him the video of
me dancing with the women I told him I
said I danced with the women he looked
at me with this facial expression of
horror
he said you danced with the women I said
yes maybe his look of disbelief
communicated to me that it was a pretty
good chance that my face would be on the
evening news as the missing American I
showed him the video on my phone he
watched that 30 seconds of those women
laughing he looked up at me and his
voice was cracking and again there were
tears on his cheeks he said Eric I grew
up in this village I have never seen the
women this happy he said Eric I have
never heard the women in my village
laugh like this he said you have truly
given each of them a gift that they will
never forget you see in my effort to
bring laughter and joy I helped those
women forget about their dismal
existence even if just for a little
while they forgot about the hunger and
poverty and just laughed and we shared
that we didn’t share a language but we
shared laughter how often is it that we
go through life and we take the time to
notice those who society sees as
invisible in 2018 I was invited to
participate in a group of shows in China
so I found myself in the Dongguan region
of southern China and someone said hey
we can go to a leper colony you can you
can do a show at a leper colony it and
as it turns out leper colony still
the driver took me and my translator to
this very long journey to a very remote
island that was totally surrounded by
rice paddies and thick foilage and when
we arrived I was greeted by about 50
people mostly men all of whom had been
suffering the effects of leprosy for
decades these men were missing legs
hands ears their nose they were gone
you know for centuries people have have
feared things and allowed that fear to
manifest itself as hate so for centuries
people have hated people with leprosy so
they put them all in a colony you know
in an island far away from society where
they don’t have to look at them they
still exist I did a comedy and magic
show for them with my translator within
just a few moments that laughter turned
to feelings of warmth between us you see
my magic and comedy had bridged
centuries of hate and mistrust not not
just between cultures of east and west
but between the sick and the well now I
everywhere I travel in my performances I
do a trick that’s called the Chinese
linking rings it’s universally loved the
world over this is that trick
oddly enough as an aside in China they
call these linking rings apparently the
Chinese is implied before I show you
this trick that I want you to know what
I did they did the same thing in Africa
and I did the same thing in Guatemala I
went out and I and I found because my
travels have taught me that there are
better avenues to help people than than
just throwing money at a problem so I
went out to local markets where that
where the local shop these open-air
markets and I bought mating pairs of
chickens and what I did was I gave those
mating pairs of chickens to members of
my audience settle down you’re not
what that what happens then is those
folks take those home and as long as a
crazy uncle doesn’t eat the first two
birds those birds mate lay eggs and they
soon have enough meat eggs and protein
to feed their family for years so much
so that oftentimes as the flock grows
those people are forced to hire their
neighbors their families and their
friends to help tend to the birds and
collect the eggs you see a simple
gesture of ten or fifteen dollars
coupled with laughter has created
entrepreneurs in some of the poorest
places on earth now this is the trick
that everyone loves I hope that remains
he true here today there are eight rings
all of these rings are solid they’re all
separate there are no holes in the rings
except in the middle because otherwise
they’d be plates you can count them with
me there are eight one two three when I
said with me what I’m all right we’re on
four that’s all right four five six
seven perfect I’m gonna lay this one
right here if I take the first three
rings one two three throw them up in the
air they become magically linked you’re
right to hold your applause to the end
no no no not if I have to ask for it
don’t
I showed you that that’s three rings
connected watch now it’s four I want to
show you this I want you to watch close
watch the bottom ring this is a very
very difficult trick and I’m only pretty
good watch real close see if you can
figure this out
watch as the bottom ring magically
mysteriously becomes the top ring that’s
so watch close we’ll do it again because
a good magician never does the same
watch the top ring we’ll do it the hard
way as it becomes the bottom ring the
listen I have good news you don’t have
to go to the farthest corners of the
world to spread joy and laughter you can
you can join a community center in your
own town you can go to a retirement
village and laugh with the residents you
can volunteer at a children’s clinic Hey
you can simply just learn a few good
jokes and share them here’s here’s
here’s how we’ll sum it up a smile
laughter sometimes a chicken can go an
awfully long way toward building
relationships you can help use that
smile and laughter can help you build
relationships with customers it can help
you teach a child a lesson it can make
our own lives that much better
guys let’s eradicate hate hunger and
poverty with laughter together thank you thank you very much
eliminate hate hunger and poverty with
one fundamental Act laughter you might
think to yourselves wait a minute
that’s a pretty bold statement to
eliminate hate hunger and poverty with
with something as simple as laughter
could this possibly be true well I
assure you that it is true you see when
we laugh we reposition about a dozen
muscles in our faces we change the blood
laughter is a physiological chemical
reaction that is impossible to duplicate
without humor children laugh on average
about 300 times per day adults laugh
just 20 times per day why is it that we
stop laughing at a time when we need
laughter the most laughter knows no
boundaries
it knows no skin color no politics no
economics it knows no boundaries here’s
what I mean
in 2013 I had the opportunity to visit a
small village in an isolated part of the
mountains of Guatemala when I arrived in
the village I saw there were about 8
young boys and they were playing marbles
in the reddish dirt I walked over those
boys didn’t say a word
picked up one of their marbles and with
sleight of hand made it disappear they
laughed I was in
they included me in their game for the
next several hours I noticed that these
boys as well as the other children in
the village were very thin and very
small for their age as I looked around
the village I saw an entire community
built on nothing more than discarded
trash their homes were made of cardboard
plastic and old tires when it came time
to leave one of the little boys came
over to me had his hand stretched out
with a marble in it and he said
something to me in Spanish because he
didn’t have the you know common decency
and he held that marble in his hand and
the translator told me what he was
saying he said he wanted to he wanted me
to have this marble
I thought these kids only have like five
marbles between the eight of them I
can’t take 20% of their toys but he
spoke again in his his speech was
different this time it was he was
adamant he said something in Spanish
and the translator turned to me with
tears in her eyes and she said he said
he wants to give this to you as a gift
he said people come from all over the
world as missionaries to visit his
village and they do things like build
schools and dig wells and they bring
food but I came and sat in the dirt and
played with him and his friends and he
wanted me to take this marble back to
the United States and play with my own
children and tell them about him and his
friends I had to fight the lump in my
in 2015 I was invited to be part of a
group of volunteers with an organization
called hope for Africa we were to visit
the Western African nation of Burkina
Faso when we when we arrived in one tiny
village there was a group of 40 or 50
women that had met us at the gates of
their community and they were they were
playing centuries-old drums and they
were dancing a ceremonial dance to
welcome us as outsiders to their village
it was very moving after an hour you
after an hour and a half I decided that
we needed a little more laughter so I
stood up and I jumped into this drum
circle and began dancing with the women
trying to mimic the dance I had seen
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
after a few minutes I feigned an injury
to my rear end look at them they
screamed with laughter this was loud
uproarious gleeful laughter when I
returned to the van where my driver had
been waiting I showed him the video of
me dancing with the women I told him I
said I danced with the women he looked
at me with this facial expression of
horror
he said you danced with the women I said
yes maybe his look of disbelief
communicated to me that it was a pretty
good chance that my face would be on the
evening news as the missing American I
showed him the video on my phone he
watched that 30 seconds of those women
laughing he looked up at me and his
voice was cracking and again there were
tears on his cheeks he said Eric I grew
up in this village I have never seen the
women this happy he said Eric I have
never heard the women in my village
laugh like this he said you have truly
given each of them a gift that they will
never forget you see in my effort to
bring laughter and joy I helped those
women forget about their dismal
existence even if just for a little
while they forgot about the hunger and
poverty and just laughed and we shared
that we didn’t share a language but we
shared laughter how often is it that we
go through life and we take the time to
notice those who society sees as
invisible in 2018 I was invited to
participate in a group of shows in China
so I found myself in the Dongguan region
of southern China and someone said hey
we can go to a leper colony you can you
can do a show at a leper colony it and
as it turns out leper colony still
the driver took me and my translator to
this very long journey to a very remote
island that was totally surrounded by
rice paddies and thick foilage and when
we arrived I was greeted by about 50
people mostly men all of whom had been
suffering the effects of leprosy for
decades these men were missing legs
hands ears their nose they were gone
you know for centuries people have have
feared things and allowed that fear to
manifest itself as hate so for centuries
people have hated people with leprosy so
they put them all in a colony you know
in an island far away from society where
they don’t have to look at them they
still exist I did a comedy and magic
show for them with my translator within
just a few moments that laughter turned
to feelings of warmth between us you see
my magic and comedy had bridged
centuries of hate and mistrust not not
just between cultures of east and west
but between the sick and the well now I
everywhere I travel in my performances I
do a trick that’s called the Chinese
linking rings it’s universally loved the
world over this is that trick
oddly enough as an aside in China they
call these linking rings apparently the
Chinese is implied before I show you
this trick that I want you to know what
I did they did the same thing in Africa
and I did the same thing in Guatemala I
went out and I and I found because my
travels have taught me that there are
better avenues to help people than than
just throwing money at a problem so I
went out to local markets where that
where the local shop these open-air
markets and I bought mating pairs of
chickens and what I did was I gave those
mating pairs of chickens to members of
my audience settle down you’re not
what that what happens then is those
folks take those home and as long as a
crazy uncle doesn’t eat the first two
birds those birds mate lay eggs and they
soon have enough meat eggs and protein
to feed their family for years so much
so that oftentimes as the flock grows
those people are forced to hire their
neighbors their families and their
friends to help tend to the birds and
collect the eggs you see a simple
gesture of ten or fifteen dollars
coupled with laughter has created
entrepreneurs in some of the poorest
places on earth now this is the trick
that everyone loves I hope that remains
he true here today there are eight rings
all of these rings are solid they’re all
separate there are no holes in the rings
except in the middle because otherwise
they’d be plates you can count them with
me there are eight one two three when I
said with me what I’m all right we’re on
four that’s all right four five six
seven perfect I’m gonna lay this one
right here if I take the first three
rings one two three throw them up in the
air they become magically linked you’re
right to hold your applause to the end
no no no not if I have to ask for it
don’t
I showed you that that’s three rings
connected watch now it’s four I want to
show you this I want you to watch close
watch the bottom ring this is a very
very difficult trick and I’m only pretty
good watch real close see if you can
figure this out
watch as the bottom ring magically
mysteriously becomes the top ring that’s
so watch close we’ll do it again because
a good magician never does the same
watch the top ring we’ll do it the hard
way as it becomes the bottom ring the
listen I have good news you don’t have
to go to the farthest corners of the
world to spread joy and laughter you can
you can join a community center in your
own town you can go to a retirement
village and laugh with the residents you
can volunteer at a children’s clinic Hey
you can simply just learn a few good
jokes and share them here’s here’s
here’s how we’ll sum it up a smile
laughter sometimes a chicken can go an
awfully long way toward building
relationships you can help use that
smile and laughter can help you build
relationships with customers it can help
you teach a child a lesson it can make
our own lives that much better
guys let’s eradicate hate hunger and
poverty with laughter together thank you thank you very much
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